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President Barack Obama recently signed the American Medical Isotope Production Act of 2011, which promotes domestic production of low-enriched uranium-based isotopes, and industry experts are weighing the effect of this on the diagnostic imaging field. Colleen Glynn, senior marketing director for the Nuclear Pharmacy Services Business of Cardinal Health, said the use of LEU is not new, as it has long been the normal practice to use a blend of LEU- and highly enriched uranium-based molybdenum-99. Lynn Phillips of Covidien's pharmaceutical unit Mallinckrodt said the subsidiary can produce LEU-derived technetium-99m generators that comply with CMS criteria, but clients have yet to ask for them.

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Lantheus Medical Imaging said it has extended its molybdenum-99 supply contract with South African Nuclear Energy Corp. unit NTP Radioisotopes, allowing it to receive low-enriched uranium-based isotopes from NTP through the end of 2017. The five-year deal also allows Lantheus to source LEU-based Mo-99 from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation and includes a separate agreement between Lantheus and the Institute for Radioelements in Belgium.

The U.S. government's plan to implement preferential procurement of low-enriched uranium-based isotopes and the current efforts of most isotope producers to shift to such isotopes could change the economics of isotope production and help prevent the undercutting of LEU-based isotope prices by HEU-based isotope producers, said Alan Kuperman, associate professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Kuperman, however, said Nordion should employ a faster timeline for the conversion to LEU-based isotopes. Russian reactor operators should also consider following in the steps of their European counterparts in making this change, he said.

While the shipment of low-enriched, uranium-based molybdenum-99 to the U.S. does not immediately solve the isotope supply crisis, it shows that medical isotopes can be produced without employing weapons-grade uranium and presents a more secure source of the materials, said Robert Atcher, SNM past president and chairman of its Medical Isotope Task Force. The shipment of this LEU-based isotope also invalidates Iran's assertion that highly enriched uranium is required to produce medical isotopes, Atcher said.

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation has agreed to provide U.S. firm Lantheus Medical Imaging with molybdenum-99 derived from low-enriched uranium for use in its TechneLite generator line being marketed in the U.S. and Canada. Lantheus and ANSTO are working with U.S. and Canadian regulators to obtain the necessary approvals for the distribution of LEU-derived Mo-99 in U.S. and Canadian markets.

Lantheus Medical Imaging has received clearance from the FDA and Health Canada to supply Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization's low-enriched uranium-derived molybdenum-99 to the U.S. and Canadian markets. The firm said the LEU-derived Mo-99 has been tested and validated for its TechneLite generators.